The perfect pre-gym, post-gym, no-gym snack.

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Trail mix is the potluck of healthy, recycled foods: just throw a smorgasbord of pantry delicacies into a bowl, mix, and *boom* a delectable treat fit for a hungry college student is born.

Sadly, for many college students, we don’t have access to the glorious pantry we are accustomed to at home. All of our money goes to… let’s say, textbooks. At best, we scrap together enough cash for ramen. But never fear. Using only products sold at CVS, I’m going to show you how to make amazing, delicious trail mix for under $20.

My Broke-Ass College Student Trail Mix recipe is made up of three main components: the cereal, the nuts, and the dried fruit.

The Cereal

Photo by Kasey Marcum

While nuts are widely considered to be the main component in trail mix, we just can’t afford to buy containers and containers of tasty, lightly salted nuts. We need a new body to the trail mix, so I propose cereal. We can’t use just any cereal though.

The Nuts

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

What’s trail mix without the nuts? Even though we can’t afford to make it the star of the recipe, nuts provide the protein fix that’ll keep you full for longer (or until your next handful). While it is easy to believe that the only affordable nut option is peanuts, there are a couple of alternative nut choices.

Optional: The Chocolate (Or yogurt)

Photo by Mike Mozart

At last, my favorite part of trail mix. The reason why all of my trail mix at the end of the day is reduced to only peanuts. There is such a big variety of M&Ms that any shareable (8oz) bag will do. Choose your favorite M&M type for $3.99.

And finally, adding up all of the most expensive options: $4.79 + $5.99 + $4.39 + $3.99 = $19.16 for an amazing trail mix creation that you can take anywhere, all week.